This week Grid Today published a story about the Digipede Network's one-year-anniversary. From the column that was published alongside the article, Grid Today's Derrick Harris must have had a great time interviewing our outspoken leader.

Titled "Digipede's Powers: The Next McNealy?", the column details what an experience it is to sit in a room with John for an hour and talk about his favorite subject--distributed computing. John is smart, he's opinionated, and he's talkative: combine those three, let him have the floor, and you're in for a ride. He'll give anyone an earful. Derrick recognized that trait and noted the similarities with Sun's old CEO, Scott McNealy (with whom I once sat at a wedding, by the way).

Is the comparison apt? I think so.

You can say a lot of things about Scott McNealy, but he took Sun on an amazing ride. And as Derrick (and a lot of other journalists) knows--he was always good for a soundbite. That's definitely a trait that Scott and John have in common. Why do they both exhibit this trait? Is it just a huge ego? No. It's because they both believe so strongly in what they do.

And that's what I like about working with John (which I've done, by the way, across three different companies for the last 16 years): he's a visionary. He has an incredible amount of conviction. And yes, Derrick, he's not afraid to speak his mind.